Drones are garbage, and a waste of taxpayer money

Drones have no real use on the battlefield, and they are too easily changed. It would take one great crack, and hundreds of drones could be turned against the manufacturers.

Putting your army in the hands of computers is folly. It is far easier to reprogram or convert a drone than a pilot.

It is a total dead-end in technology. The only good drones are cruise missiles, because they self-destruct by design.

I just want to say it loud and say it proud, the pentagon is full of blithering idiots. They are designing weapons and armies around international law loopholes and misguided ideas about American tolerance for casualties. 1) it's a loophole, so it is hardly legal anyways, and 2) there are no laws in war. 3) war weariness from lost soldiers/pilots is only a way for people who despise wars to appeal to their less empathetic countrymen. 4) In a real war, the lives saved by using drone pilots would be insignificant and irrelevant. 5) fighters are way harder to shoot down than drones, and only a handful of drones have been shot down, because the theaters they are operating in are not actual warzones.

The pentagon is also developing super tanks that will have no crew. Their stupidity knows no bounds. How could you even dream of deploying armaments that the only thing stopping the weapon from being turned against you is an encrypted signal program. ALL programs have backdoors. They have to for maintenance. Find that backdoor, and wait for the right moment to exploit it. To rely on a drone army is to rely on your cyber-guys being better than their cyber-guys. America only has 1/25th of the world's population. Many of America's "enemies" have more intelligent people than the entire population of America. And stealing a drone, much like using one, is a risk free operation. So in that regard, it is tit-for-tat. Mouse and trap.

I have mixed feelings about them. I once heard the idea of making Drone Aircraft Carriers and thought that sounded like an interesting idea. I guess just picturing small Drone craft launching in formation and doing very fast maneuvers could seem like a unique battle tool and maybe even assist in targeting and spotting.

Otherwise, I really disagree with using them to make a Surveillance State. That comes off to make as a very inefficient High Tech Dragnet. The only exception to that I might consider is by the Mexican border.

I have mixed feelings about them. I once heard the idea of making Drone Aircraft Carriers and thought that sounded like an interesting idea. I guess just picturing small Drone craft launching in formation and doing very fast maneuvers could seem like a unique battle tool and maybe even assist in targeting and spotting.

Otherwise, I really disagree with using them to make a Surveillance State. That comes off to make as a very inefficient High Tech Dragnet. The only exception to that I might consider is by the Mexican border.

Drone aircraft carriers. Cool, hack the carrier, get all the drones for free!

"Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

"Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."

Drone aircraft carriers. Cool, hack the carrier, get all the drones for free!

That's why I think leaving them active and airborne all the time is a bad idea. Leave them stationed on the carrier until needed. I don't think they can be hacked if they're turned off and not receiving a signal.

If suddenly needed during a real air battle I'd be surprised if anyone could hack something that fast.

I also wonder if they could be pre-programed and then launched autonomously into battle without remote control. Of course an AI Drone over a city they way they're used now would be insane. But a ship sending out a drone swarm over the sea against enemy ships or planes seems about as reasonable to me as say using guided torpedoes.

If anything, this situation has proved the government is nothing but a dictatorship backed by deadly force... no different than the dictatorships in the banana republics, just more polished and cleverly propagandized.

Originally Posted by otherone

"People who live in white houses shouldn't throw drones" - the GOOD book

That's why I think leaving them active and airborne all the time is a bad idea. Leave them stationed on the carrier until needed. I don't think they can be hacked if they're turned off and not receiving a signal.

If suddenly needed during a real air battle I'd be surprised if anyone could hack something that fast.

I also wonder if they could be pre-programed and then launched autonomously into battle without remote control. Of course an AI Drone over a city they way they're used now would be insane. But a ship sending out a drone swarm over the sea against enemy ships or planes seems about as reasonable to me as say using guided torpedoes.

Read up on how Iran (with China's help) supposedly hacked the "beast on Khandahar". It wasn't by taking over the remote control. It was by jamming the GPS signal.

That's why I think leaving them active and airborne all the time is a bad idea. Leave them stationed on the carrier until needed. I don't think they can be hacked if they're turned off and not receiving a signal.

If suddenly needed during a real air battle I'd be surprised if anyone could hack something that fast.

I also wonder if they could be pre-programed and then launched autonomously into battle without remote control. Of course an AI Drone over a city they way they're used now would be insane. But a ship sending out a drone swarm over the sea against enemy ships or planes seems about as reasonable to me as say using guided torpedoes.